Phelps v. Winchel
Supreme Court of Connecticut
In the Court below, JL HIS was an action on the case, stating, that the defendants had combined with Ephraim Pixley, Ehenczcr Center, and Eikanah Phelps, jun. for the purpose of defrauding the plaintiff, and had, by means of such combination, practised a fraud on the plaintiff, in the pretended sale to him of certain lands in that part of Pennsylvania ccmmcrdy called the Susquehannah Company’s Purchase. during the pendenev of As suit, the other JeitnAmt pleaded the general…
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In the Court below, JL HIS was an action on the case, stating, that the defendants had combined with Ephraim Pixley, Ehenczcr Center, and Eikanah Phelps, jun. for the purpose of defrauding the plaintiff, and had, by means of such combination, practised a fraud on the plaintiff, in the pretended sale to him of certain lands in that part of Pennsylvania ccmmcrdy called the Susquehannah Company’s Purchase. during the pendenev of As suit, the other JeitnAmt pleaded the general issue, which was cloned to the jury. A verdict was found, and jugment rendered, for the pliantiff. On the trial, the…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
The common law recognizes but one description of interest, that shall exclude a person from testifying ; that is an interest in the event of the suit. Merely an interest in the question, as it is called, —his having, or being likely to have, a suit, which may turn upon the same point, is not, in legal estimation, an interest, it Is a bias, affecting his credit, but not his competency. So is the law understood, by the courts at Westminster. Precedents to the contrary, which misled them for a time, as they have the courts in this State, have been found, on examination, to be…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Smith v. DownsSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1827